Struggling with conservatism: entrepreneurships' challenges in business model design

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the conservative business ecosystem and to identify opportunities for new companies to create value. Authors used a design-oriented case study with a start-up concentrating on the commercialisation of the university research. The authors consider a novel business model used by the start-up company. By analysing the model, methods are proposed for accelerating the company and the business ecosystem. The results indicate that cooperation between the product suppliers and opinion leaders plays a key role in supporting the biomedical business ecosystem. The probability of success for a new product depends on the interest of the professional community. The results add to the existing knowledge on business models for start-up companies to succeed without business expertise and extensive business network. The transformation of customers to partners stimulates the emergence of a new business model that takes into account the new role of a 'customer-partner'.

Automated summary

The paper aims to investigate conservative business ecosystems and identify opportunities for new companies to create value. A design-oriented case study was conducted, focusing on a start-up commercializing university research. Results suggest that cooperation between product suppliers and opinion leaders is crucial for supporting biomedical business ecosystems, and the success of new products depends on the interest of professional communities.